The cooperation with France was basically successful, and this trip to Guangzhou was also a success, but after Andre left, Yang Meng did not arrange a trip back to Yunnan, not because of the pregnant Lian'er, but because there is a big threat to the Pearl River waterway, that is, the three-point religion!

The three-point sect, there is no possibility of combining with the Yang family, if you can't work together, you are the enemy, for the enemy in addition to suppressing is to take precautions, in terms of vigilance, Yang Meng is definitely a cautious person, he will not underestimate any opponent, although the three-point sect has some use value, but in the end it will be destroyed.

The location of the three-point sect is too wonderful, Gui Ping happened to cut off the Pearl River waterway, and rushed to Feng Yunshan's style, so he knew that the three-point sect was a group of lawless figures, and the Pearl River waterway was not an exaggeration to say that it was the lifeline of the Yang family.

The export of Yunyan, the import of machinery and equipment and technology, most of them are on the Pearl River waterway, once the three points of the sect start, it is likely to cut off the Pearl River trade route, which Yang Meng can not accept, armed escort, it has become a necessary means.

In addition to facilitating transportation, another important reason for building power ships and barges is to block and occupy the waterways of the Pearl River and the Yangtze River.

rested in Lixiangyuan for one night, and the next morning, Yang Meng took Ding Taichen and Wei Zhiqing to live in the shipyard again.

"Can those twelve iron-hulled powered ships pass unimpeded on the Pearl River waterway?"

Yang Meng had seen the twelve iron-hulled powered ships before, and there should be no problem, but this matter still had to be approved by the boatmen. There are some things that I think are not easy to do. Once stranded halfway. That's a big joke.

"There is no problem, although it can't be directly sailed into Yunnan, but where the current fleet can go, the iron-hulled power ship can go!"

After getting a positive answer, then it is possible to implement his own design, and Yang Meng's expression was still very serious just now, and it eased a lot.

"How many barges can an iron-hulled powered ship tow? What is the speed? What about flexibility? ”

Speed and agility are also key, and fleets that are too slow will only become a live target. Flexibility is the key factor to prevent being ambushed by artillery fire on both sides of the strait, and if either of these two items is missing, the power of the barge artillery fleet will be greatly reduced.

"My lord, if you only tow a dozen barges, the speed of the power ship is no worse than that of the foreigners' river gunboats, and if you tow fifty barges of more than 500 tons, the sailing speed will be very slow.

The flexibility of an iron-hulled powered boat is good, but towed on a barge. It's a bit worse, if you want to increase the flexibility of the entire fleet. A small steam engine can be added to the barge.

The first coal barge behind the power ship was equipped with a small steam engine, and in the wide inland waterway, a power ship towed a coal ship, although the flexibility was a little worse than that of the river gunboat, but it was not very bad. ”

Everything has met Yang Meng's requirements, and the next task is to test the gun.

"How many twenty-four-pound mortars can a barge fit?"

This question has never been tried by the technicians of the shipyard, and after Yang Meng raised this question, the designers and technicians present had no suitable answer.

"Taichen, make a batch of mortars brought from France, mainly thirty-two pounds and twenty-four pounds, and in the next time, you will test the cannons with the maximum amount of medicine, and see how many mortars a barge can be equipped with without overturning.

If possible, install small steam engines on ten barges as much as possible during this time, and after testing the number of guns loaded on the barges, you will also design an ironclad barge according to the Pearl River and the Yangtze River waterway. The sooner the better! ”

The mechanics of the shipyard were already familiar with Yang Meng's authority, and as soon as they gave the order, these people went their separate ways.

"Third master, do you want to go back to Yunnan with gold and silver?"

"Hmmm! Not only that, but we also have to guard against the people and horses of the Three Points Sect, these people are lawless existences, and our cargo ships will be armed and escorted in the future.

Inform Tan Yubin of the Ship Master Academy and ask him to send a sub-student to participate in the escort, so that if there is a war on the way, the students can also see the blood.

You go down and arrange the artillery and barges, and let Li Mingfu come to see me, I still have important things to order. ”

sent away Ding Taichen, Li Mingfu, the chief manager of the shipyard and the iron factory, was also summoned by Yang Meng alone for the first time.

"Third Master!"

"Mingfu is here, the livelihood of this shipyard in the early stage is not very good, I also know that you have difficulties, now the tasks of the shipyard and the iron yard, I have arranged them, in the recent period, it is mainly my arrangement, anyone who wants to change the task of the shipyard without permission, you must have my strip here!

You are not good at military affairs, don't get too involved in the defense of shipyards and iron factories, just do your job well, anyone who dares to blackmail the Yang family with his skills, if it is acceptable for you to deal with it, if the lion opens his mouth, dig a pit and bury a tree!

Is there anything you'd like to report on here? ”

glanced at Li Mingfu at the bottom, and saw that he looked constipated with something to say without vomiting or unhappy, so Yang Meng also added such a sentence.

"Third master, tinplate is a good thing, our Guangzhou Iron Works, can't you get it?"

"Tinplate? Is it available now? Show me the real thing! ”

Tinplate is a good thing, the cans and bottles of later generations are made of this thing, Yang Meng is worried that there is nothing to do with military kettles or anything! With this thing, it's another way to make money.

With a lot of effort, Li Mingfu found a jar made of tinplate, all handmade, this thing is remarkable except for the stupid workmanship.

"Nice thing, what's the ingredient?"

"Iron ore and big tin!"

"! I said that how foreign devils buy a large number of tin, the reason is here! Is the recipe available? ”

"There it is!"

"That's good! What is lacking, you first small-scale trial production, and then this factory will be opened in Yunnan, after all, there is no shortage of tin and iron.

After making the tinplate, make the iron plate. Development of stamping machinery. That's what you're going to do. ”

Play a few tricks. The general drew the general structure and connection method of the kettle and some iron cans, and Yang Meng didn't know what kind of machinery was used, but he had seen countless connections of the iron cans.

"Stop here, I'm looking for you this time, there is something else, are you familiar with the process of flowering bullets?"

"Familiar!"

"That's good! Now the cast iron flowering bullet we are calling, the wall of the hollow bullet is too thick, and the charge is limited. The power of foreign medicine is not enough to blow up the hollow bomb, so you are here just for the flowering bomb.

Try to make a hollow bullet with copper, so that the charge will be larger, and the power of the flowering bullet will also increase exponentially.

This cannonball, if feasible, is integrated with the artillery factory under the ironworks, top secret! ”

The weight of the iron flowering bullet is not a problem, the biggest problem is that the wall of the hollow bullet is too thick. And the best foreign medicine is not enough to blow up the hollow bomb into extremely small anti-personnel fragments.

Yang Meng once tried. A twenty-four-pound flowering projectile can blow up twenty or thirty fragments at most, which is much less powerful than the weight of the shell.

It is absolutely impossible to thin the wall of the iron shell, if you want to hit far, the charge must be large, and the pressure of the chamber will increase after the amount of ammunition is large, and it is not impossible for the wall of the bullet to be thin, but the explosion of the chamber is certain, a twenty-four-pound flowering bomb, the amount of medicine in it can be two or three times that of the propellant! Two or three pounds of fire in the flowering bomb. Medicine, plus one or two catties of propellant exploded together, then the artillery was tragic.

The breech gun will not be withdrawn from the regular army for twelve years, and the fire . There is no condition for the medicine to be transformed, so it can only be transformed into shells.

"Third master, using copper to make cannonballs can make the bullet wall thinner, but isn't the cost a little bigger?"

An iron cannonball is not worth a few dollars, but copper is money, and a copper cannonball is probably ten times as much as an iron cannonball, right? And cannonballs are consumables, and using copper as cannonballs is a bit of a loser!

"The power of the artillery matters, if it is done, the copper cannonball will not be used casually, only against the military formation, is the time for this kind of cannonball to show its might!"

The larger the amount of medicine and the thinner the wall of the projectile, the greater the lethality of the fragments, and the lethality of more than 20 pieces and hundreds or thousands of pieces is not the same, and the flowering bullet wants to kill the fragments, in fact, in terms of the amount of kills, the copper shells are still worth the money.

"Zhilu Dao, I'll go down and make arrangements!"

"Hmmm! The sooner the better, and the time should be set in 10 days! Within 10 days, you have to take out a sample, and I want to see the breakage rate! ”

It is not a problem to make a copper cannonball, there is already a cannonball factory here in Guangzhou, and the ready-made mold can be changed.

Sent away Li Mingfu, Yang Meng is still busy, the distribution of the vitality network is his task, to turn the coverage of the barge artillery team into a dead place, in order to truly show the power of the artillery array, but these also need a support, that is, the number of mortars loaded on the barge.

After roughly drawing the firepower configuration, Yang Meng put the drawings into his arms, such a concept cannot be revealed at will, although the ships in front of the column already have firepower configuration, but their concept is too far behind Yang Meng's.

After doing this, Yang Meng went to see the renovation site of the ironclad ship, very slowly! Three English warships, the cabins and decks have just been dismantled, and the mechanics are transforming and dividing the areas for modularization!

Looking at the workers attached to the hull of the bullet line, Yang Meng's heart also slowly rose hope, as long as this transformation is completed, this 10,000-mile sea frontier is not the world of the great powers, although ten warships are not much, but with these ten warships, it is possible to blockade the Lingding Ocean, and after these ten ships are successful, there will be more.

The barge test cannon, it seems that it will not be done today, the mortar cannon that has just been unloaded from the ship is still being assembled, and it will take late at night to prepare the things, and the test gun cannot be seen, Yang Meng is not interested, and turned around and went back to his cabin.

"Master Wei, come here! Something to do! ”

"Master, let's let Lan Ying go first......"

"What do you think! Let you draw, this reader is really full of crooked thoughts! ”

"Grandpa......"

Wei Fuzi, who was teased by Yang Meng, was very dissatisfied, and packed up the paper and pen, and the eyeballs were much whiter than black.

"Whoa! This is the sequence of the barge artillery team, which is generally the appearance of fourteen or fifteen ships, you make the hull look like a dragon, such a barge artillery team is more deterrent in the Qing Dynasty!

Gongbi painting is what Wei Fuzi is good at, and this painting method is suitable for design, and the barge fleet on the paper has become a dragon.

"Hmm...... The appearance of the dragon's head is not vicious enough, as a barge with a dragon body, it is also less deterrent, I have seen the beast face card in the green camp, draw dragon scales according to that look, give it a try! ”

The barge artillery team is mainly aimed at the three-point sect, and the three-point sect is nothing more than fools, and sometimes, lethality does not necessarily scare off these mobs, and things like gods and monsters are more terrible to them than death!

"Master, do you think this will work?"

"Hmm...... There is a head and a tail, but there is a lack of backbone, which is not a good sign. It's the same with being a dragon, on a barge, get a blood-colored poplar flag, so that there is a backbone? ”

A design draft, the two of them have been revised until midnight, this is considered final, since the shipyard designer on the transformation of the ironclad ship on the ass on the back, Yang Meng also boasted of being a design master.

"Good! This is the majesty! The name of the river dragon is good, and this barge artillery team will be called the river dragon in the future! ”

This is not a design draft, it can only be regarded as a rendering, with this craftsman below, but also to design a specific size, out of the real thing to be considered a success. (To be continued......)